charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200
X-archive-position: 16712
X-listar-version: Listar v0.128a
Sender: ffml-bounce@fanfic.com
Errors-To: ffml-bounce@fanfic.com
X-original-sender: sommer@3rdm.net
Precedence: bulk
X-list: ffml
[The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set]
[Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set]
[Some characters may be displayed incorrectly]
And now getting to this:
Gee, it's been a while. I just kept writing and writing and writing on
this chapter, and the next thing I knew it was over twice the length of
any
that came before it. So, to remain consistent, I split it into two
chapters. Here's chapter four. Chapter five IS WRITTEN, but I'm still
messing with the final scene of chapter five, so it may be another week
before it comes out.
% Been 10 days. Hope to see it soon.
Chapter six is in progress.
Unfortunately, there is no webpage yet. Anyone who'd like to host this,
please let me know.
There are lots of places that are willing to host fics. Look around a little
and you should find some pretty easy.
Deep in Nerv's fortification, Sigurd stood before his
commander, finishing up a combat assessment of his younger
brother.
Sigurd: You suck.
Sigurd nodded. "I've trained him to the fullest extent of
my abilities, anything else will be up to him to figure out on his
own. By himself, I think he _could_ win, but with adequate
support I can state that he _would_ win."
"Probably," he added.
"However," Citan continued, "we have a situation."
Always bad news.
Citan nodded and slid his glasses up on his nose with one
finger before returning his hands back to their original position.
On Sigurd's butt.
"Angels are displaying new behavior now. They are, herding, for
lack of a better term, people."
Yep. That's bad, all right.
"There are two herds, one in South America under the joint
supervision of both the Brazilian and US branches, and one in
Siberia under supervision of the Russian branch. The South
American herd is the larger of the two, with approximately ten
thousand human beings and over four hundred Seraphs, including
twenty-three Power Seraphs." He paused as Sigurd blanched.
My. That's grim.
"Twenty-three?! And over a four
drop 'a'
"That's one of the big questions. Maybe they had kids,
maybe there were more in the ground than we'd thought, maybe God
put them there to spite us.
I vote on the latter.
Citan nodded and shifted position slightly, carefully
avoiding moving his head. "The Russian herd is much smaller, with
approximately nine hundred people and a confirmed thirty-seven
angels. It's difficult to get a very good view because of
overcast skies and the heat and
would rephrase as 'skies, the heat, and other
other electromagnetic interference
caused by the angels. This is the best picture we've got."
A picture of Pamala Lee popped up on the screen.
"Good picture," Sigurd commented.
"This image is several weeks old, and the herds have
increased several percent during that time, mainly from an influx
of new people.
Err, how else would they increase?
Sigurd looked ill. "This is definitely a situation," he
said, shaking his head in amazement.
"You haven't heard the situation yet," Jessie replied.
Heh. And that's something even worse to hear.
"Another base? Can we afford that?" Sigurd asked.
Citan shook his head. "No. With the removal of this base
and the Nerv-Italy branch, Nerv-Russia is the sole remaining
defense base for the Asian continent. It's also the only branch
with enough early generation Evas to provide significant
resistance."
Sounds like they need to go on the offensive.
Citan typed a command, removing the image from the wall.
"That has yet to be decided. The plan is to attack the herd
directly and break it up, thus preventing mass attack by the
angels."
Makes sense.
"Attack and kill the people?" Sigurd asked.
Why not? Humanity has been doing it for centuries. :)
"Wait," Citan ordered. "I want you to consider that the
battle there will be on open ground, but most of the defense here
will be within sight of Tokyo-three."
I thought they were pulling out of T-3
"Put that way..." Sigurd shook his head. "Send Fei and
Major Katsuragi. If we're lucky we _will_ see a repeat occurrence
and we'll be short one herd and several hundred traitors to the
human race."
Oh? They know the humans aren't being coerced into helping?
Both Jessie and Citan nodded. "That agrees with our
assessment," Citan answered. "But is that your view, that they're
traitors?"
Sigurd nodded. "If they are not fighting the angels, they
must be with them."
That's pretty uncompromising.
Jessie spoke up almost inaudibly. "I never did like
Commander Oleg."
With a name like Oleg, he's probably a bad guy. :P
All of them had been on the move for over a day, moving
slowly to both conserve energy and avoid detection. They were
deep in the Siberian forest, sneaking from one small pocket of
angels and humans to another. They had already amassed huge
amounts of valuable information, but they were to check several
more groups before returning.
Methinks they shall run into trouble soon.
out the children crouched on the grass, the adults passing out
what was probably food, and what looked remarkably like a baby
angel laying face up on the ground at the front of the crowd. It
was humanoid, but roughly twice the size of the humans surrounding
it, a comparison made obvious by the number of people using it as
a seat.
Hmm. interesting
'Not see us if not in Eva,' Dominia reasoned.
Hard to kill them without one though.
'No. Enemy unknown. Reaction unknown. Report new type of
enemy, get instructions.' Elly commanded, finally deciding to play
it safe.
'No risk, no gain,' Dominia tried again.
Actually they are risking plenty as is.
Kelvena divided her time between watching the herd and
scanning the horizon, alert for enemies. All of the Eva's
auditory sensors had been disconnected, as the electrical signals
might alert the angels. Unlike the eyes, however, Evas possessed
no 'natural' ears, leaving both girls in complete silence.
That's a major drawback.
In less than ten minutes they had their fill and returned to
their original position, the smaller angel with them. The Seraph
sat up, waiting for them to move. When they were far enough back,
it glowed with power, sending a streak of white light into the sky
several times before resuming its steady generation of heat.
Definitely weird
They didn't have long to wait before finding out. Scarcely
twenty minutes had passed before Kelvena's alert scan spotted an
angel at an extreme distance away, its huge head and shoulders the
only thing sticking up as it waded through the trees. Tapping
Elly on the shoulder, she pointed at it and looked around for
more. Too her growing unease, she saw three more heading in her
direction.
A Very Bad Thing
Kelvena nodded and scuttled down the road in a swift
military crawl. Now unsure of the angel's positions, she
carefully eased up and looked over where the road crested a hill.
Something that looked much like a small Seraph with a tail looked
back from a distance of about thirty yards.
Oops
It jerked back, looking as surprised as an angel could. A
white glow began to surround it, but was abruptly cut off as
Kelvena dropped her gun and slammed her Eva's hands around it,
squishing it to about a half of its original thickness. Thick
white angel goo dripped from between the Eva's fingers.
Yuck
Dominia might have argued. In fact, that was why Dominia
was already on her way with the earlier info. But not Kelvena.
Turning according to her bearings on the land, she ran, discarding
stealth for speed.
Ah, someone who knows how to obey orders.
Elly sighed. It was up to her to provide an adequate
distraction,
A strip tease usually works.
As fast as she was able, she relaxed her body and regained
full control of the Eva. On her waist, the little unit shot a
measured dose of chemicals up a tube running through her plugsuit,
down an IV in her arm, and directly into her bloodstream. A
potent mixture of synthetic adrenaline, endorphins, dopamine, PCP
derivatives, and countless other neurochemicals immediately
started working their magic on her brain.
Yikes. That's quite a mix. Better warriors through chemical augmentation
and the evening meal. All of the overhead lights worked, and it
even had a TV and sound system, as well as several computer
terminals and snack machines. Nothing but the lights worked now,
as most of the electricity had been cut off from damage, but Fei
and Bart stared at the TV anyway.
Heh
So drowsy was he that he missed hearing footsteps approach
and was thus unprepared for the weight that suddenly hopped over
the back of the couch and sat in the middle of his back.
I've been in that state myself a few times.
She glanced at the blank screen. "So, what are we
watching?"
"One of those existential movies Sigurd is always talking
about," Bart mumbled in reply. "Starkness, bleak human soul,
angst...
So Sigurd is Norweigen? :)
They completely failed to be interested.
"Oh, come on. It'll be fun. How can you say no to a
mission that involves beer and penguins?"
Good point.
Finally, Bart grunted. "What's in it for us?"
"A hot date." She grinned, having already thought of this
one.
"With who?" Bart asked
"With me," Misato said happily.
"I thought you said it would be a hot date," Bart mentioned, and was
promptly kneed in his groin.
She thought furiously. "Tell you what. You get to get into
my panties."
I can see this one coming.
Fei rose up off the couch, turned, and _looked_ at her, one
eyebrow raised.
She shrugged sheepishly. "I need you to pack some of my
clothes."
Bingo.
****************
"_This_ is her apartment?" Fei asked, eyeing the beer can
castle dominating the center of the living area.
At least it didn't fall over from the explosion.
Fei held up a lacy but otherwise plain pair of red panties
and looked at Bart oddly.
"Have a pair of those on right now," Bart assured him.
"Wow!" she exclaimed almost immediately. "Fei's DNA has
already accepted a two percent intron acceptance from 1-3!"
Wow! Of course that information means nothing to me. But Wow!
"So you immediately saw it, good." Ritsuko nodded. "Yes, 1-
3 doesn't actually show the signs of being a third generation Eva
at all when it's actually examined."
drop one of the 'actually's. Probably the first.
"But what about when they're reproducing _inside_ one of our
pilots?" Maya asked in a strange tone.
"That would be different, then. I'd have to talk with
Commander Uzuki."
"Then you'd better call him up, Sempai."
Heh.
"Commander Uzuki, I'm sorry to wake you like this," greeted
the slightly caffinated
Heh. Like that term
Citan smiled slightly, almost positive he could see a gleam
in her eyes. "I don't think that they will be harmful to his
health, as they're probably there to rebuild his body from
injury." He stifled a yawn. "The appropriate investigation party
will look into it."
Heh. Shot her ass down.
Nice work. Things are moving along as events continue and mysteries deepen.
Still sorry I don't know about Xenogears since members of the cast, though
enjoyable, are still something of a msytery to me.
D.B. Sommer